Hearing devices are devices which relate to the hearing of an individual. They may be hearing aids for compensating a hearing loss, hearing protection against harmful noise, communication devices allowing individuals to speak to each other remotely, inconspicuously and/or in noisy environments, headsets which deliver and/or pick-up sound at the head of an individual or any combination of the before mentioned.
Hearing devices comprise commonly some sort of ear-piece which is positioned substantially in the ear and in particular partially in the ear canal of the user. It thereby closes the ear-canal partially or fully. A so called vent passage is usually provided to avoid a complete closure of the ear canal. Different designs of such vent passages are known from the following documents:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,177 discloses an earphone for devices such as radio or tape players. A microphone is provided to allow hearing of outside sounds. There is venting from inside the ear canal to the atmosphere. The vent tube runs out of the housing to a location remote from the microphone to reduce the susceptibility to feedback. Acoustic damping material may be placed inside the tubes.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,357,576 discloses an in-the-canal hearing aid with a protruding shell portion. The vent extends outwardly on the protruding shell portion to a position at the rim to space the outer vent opening away from the microphone to reduce the likelihood of feedback.
WO 01/43499 A1 discloses a completely in-the-canal hearing device. A conduit serves as both a vent and a retrieval cord. The vent tube contributes to the reduction of acoustic feedback.
US 2008/0301944 A1 discloses an in-ear custom-molded ear-plug device with venting grooves. The grooves are helical and surround the custom-molded ear-plug unit.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,079,662 discloses a hearing aid device wearable in the ear having an aeration channel. An acoustic damper may be present in the channel to prevent the occurrence of resonance effects.
Ear-pieces of hearing devices are often secured by some kind of retention means, such a as resilient member abutting on the inside of the concha, which may be called due to its position and function “concha clip”. Different designs of retentions means are disclosed in the following documents:
U.S. Pat. No. 7,068,803 discloses an acoustic device with means for being secured in a human ear. It may be a passive noise shield or one with transducers for communication. The securing means is a leaf spring designed to uniformly distribute force on the cartilage arch between the antihelix and the concha. An antenna may be integral with the spring.
DE 10 2006 050 502 A1 discloses a concha clip which is provided for fixing an ear-piece by an attachment in the concha and/or an antihelix. The clip is designed as plastic injection-molded part.
WO 2007/014950 A2 discloses a hearing device. According to the embodiment of FIG. 7 there are an outer ear section and a helix section interconnected with a bridge section. Positioning of the microphone in the helix section creates a large distance between the microphone and the receiver thereby minimizing feedback. Further the helix section assists in retaining the housing in the ear of the wearer.
Generally it can be concluded that there are numerous ways described in the prior art how to arrange hearing devices in and/or around the ear, how to retain them, and how to provide vent passages between the ear canal and the atmosphere. However, each of the known solutions is still imperfect in regard to at least one of the following aspects:                reliability and/or comfort of the retention in the ear;        susceptibility to feedback or maximum stable gain;        inconspicuousness and/or cosmetic appeal;        moisture accumulation in the ear canal;        occlusion perceived by the user;        simplicity of construction and/or manufacturing effort;        effort necessary for the initial adaptation to the user;        maintainability, e.g. cleaning and removal of cerumen;        every-day usability, e.g. insertion and removal.        